Aberrant clone
The aberrant clones were genetically flawed duplicates of Abalan, a Human male who served as the secret apprentice of the Dark mutant the Gladiator. After Abalan's death, the Gladiator attempted to create a more powerful and obedient version of his fallen apprentice —a clone with all of Abalan's skills and none of the emotional attachments that undermined his connection to the Darkness. As a result of an imperfect cloning process, however, numerous clones were engineered and ultimately discarded due to their physical deformities and mental instability. The experiment was gradually corrected by the lead cloning technician while the Gladiator endeavored to train the more stable clones using memory flashes of their template's life. By 2014, hundreds of failures were secretly stored within the cloning facility of Tallahassee, Florida. By then, however, the Dark Lord had finally succeeded in creating a stable clone of his deceased apprentice, although one renegade subject managed to escape Florida after the Gladiator deemed him to be another imperfect copy of Abalan. The rogue clone returned to Florida during the Assault on Florida where he was forced to confront several batches of the aberrant clones, many of whom had been confined to their cloning tanks in Tallahassee. X1 defeated of the clones using a combination of his sword skills and superpowers, but the encounter with other versions of Abalan ultimately had a profound psychological effect on him. Like X1, the aberrant clones suffered from similar cases of identity crisis due to their inability to separate Abalan's life from their own experiences. As such, X1 empathized with the clones he killed, an act which he also viewed as fratricide — even suicide — because they originated from the same genotype as him. History Origin The aberrant clones came into existence as a result of clandestine project to replicate the late Abalan, the former NoHead apprentice of the Dark mutant the Gladiator. Shortly after Abalan died fighting with Annabeth, who he had fallen in love with, the Gladiator transported the apprentice's body to the state of Florida, intending to preserve the corpse as a template from which the required DNA samples for cloning would be harvested.The Gladiator: Ultimate Cloning Edition Many obstacles hindered the project's success rate, however. First, the Dark Lord's scientists resorted to using the accelerated cloning process, an experimental procedure that produced full-grown subjects in under a few weeks; the drawback being that all clones bred through this process would inevitably succumb to madness due to their rushed growth cycle. Another dilemma that confounded the cloning technicians was mutantry itself. By then, it had long been believed that clones could not be successfully created from mutant templates. There was no definitive explanation for this phenomenon, but Nick Talle theorized that mutantry inherently hindered the cloning process. The third and most problematic obstacle was memory. In order for the new apprentice to utilize his inherent superpowers and combat skills, Abalan's memories would have to be imprinted on his replacement's own brain, thus transferring his knowledge and experience to his clone. But through this, the clone would also develop an identity crisis as a result of possessing the memories and emotions of another person. Despite these obstacles, the Gladiator proceeded with his plans and the initial results produced a batch of hundreds of aberrant clones, all physically deformed and mentally unstable, and none of whom were considered successful by the Gladiator's standards or his lead cloning technician. The aberrant clones were put into suspended animation within their cloning tanks; the mistakes in their design would be gradually corrected, resulting in less flawed clones. Meanwhile, the Gladiator personally trained several promising test subjects in the hopes that at least one clone would prove sufficient enough to become his new apprentice. Fratricide After months of failed attempts, the project was finally deemed a success when a single clone succeeded where all of his predecessors failed — he overcame the memory imprints of Abalan.The Gladiator: Ultimate Cloning Edition cutscenes By compartmentalizing and isolating Abalan's memories, he was able to differentiate his progenitor's thoughts from his own. Around the same time, another clone had nearly succeeded in his own trials, only to disappoint the Gladiator when he failed to overcome his ingrained attachment to Captain Laleh Clipso, nor to NoHead Marauder Annabeth Black a trait that his successful counterpart also inherited but later suppressed. Realizing that he would be disposed of as a failed test subject, the renegade clone managed to escape from Florida, but later returned at the head of the Police Fleet in order to rescue Black and Captain Clipso. Just as the fighting began, Xydarone IV — a female bounty hunter hired by the Gladiator — encountered a lone aberrant clone who was armed with a sword. Driven by a sense of mindless rage, the clone attacked and nearly killed Xydarone, only to be killed when Xydarone IV desperately launched a missile out of nowhere at the clone. During the fighting, the renegade clone — by then referred to as "X1," the former codename of his template — infiltrated Tallahassee where he was confronted by the Gladiator and the aberrant clones. Until this point, X1 did not believe that there had been other clones before him. The sight of his "brothers," however imperfect, forced him to confront what he had believed from the start — he was a clone and the original Abalan had perished, just as the Gladiator had told him. In the aberrant clones, the only emotions he sensed were hate, rage and an overwhelming desire to kill. Yet they also exhibited confusion; they were all equally confused over their own identities. While defending himself against the clones, X1 took time to study his precursors. He noted that the first wave to attack him were the weakest and easiest to kill; the second group was cautious enough to keep their distance from their target who was armed with dual swords. The last waves included clones who wielded lightning, and those armed and trained in sword combat. Despite the fact that they too possessed Abalan's powers, none of them could defeat the renegade clone in open battle. The ones who rushed at him were cut down, others were overpowered by his own command of mutantry, and the rest attacked each other due to their unstable minds. As the Assault on Florida concluded with a decisive Grand Army victory, X1 successfully rescued Laleh Clipso and Annabeth and defeated the Gladiator, who was then taken into police custody. In spite of his success, X1 remained conflicted over his ordeal with the aberrant clones. Aside from their differences with him and each other, as clones they all possessed the same attributes as Abalan in greater or lesser degrees. As such, X1 came to struggle with his own guilt for killing the aberrant clones, an action which he considered to be a form of fratricide — even suicide, since they were all genetic copies of the same man. Powers and abilities Despite their many genetic flaws, the aberrant clones possessed Abalan's powerful affinity to mutantry. But due to the psychological damage that they suffered in the cloning process, the clones would never be able to utilize Abalan's abilities in a concentrated and focused way of combat. Since they were the first and most flawed versions of the clones, the genetically-inherited abilities of the original Abalan were not evenly distributed among the aberrant clones. Some were more skilled at using superpowers such as lightning and telekinesis. Other clones were equipped with dual swords and specialized in the dual fighting style. All of the aberrant clones, however, were capable of shielding themselves from basic mutant attacks, except for Mind control. Naturally due to their imperfections, the abilities of the aberrant clones were greatly underdeveloped and inferior to their more stable clone brothers, X1 and X2. Appearances *''The Gladiator: Ultimate Cloning Edition'' Notes and references Category:Non-canonical characters